Wetlands are examples of “ecotones,” where land masses interface with water. Due to a variety of human impacts, a significant percentage of wetlands have been lost, along with the benefits they provide. Natural wetlands are often referred to as kidneys of the landscape. Due to their physical, chemical, and biological properties, wetlands serve as vital landscape features that improve water quality, provide habitat for a broad spectrum of fauna and flora, and provide ecosystem services that benefit humanity.
Until the last few decades, the importance of wetlands was not well understood. Since shipping has historically been a principle means of transportation and commerce, many wetlands were filled along tidal waters in cities to create ports. As human populations grew, the need for housing in urban areas increased, further displacing wetlands. In recent years, the continued march of urban development has resulted in extensive wetland loss.
Wetlands provide a natural buffer for waterways, filtering pollutants from surface waters. As human development and population has grown, so have the quantity of anthropogenic pollutants from stormwater runoff, failing sewage systems, and industrial discharges. Chemicals, nutrients, heavy metals, bacteria, sediment, and trash from these sources all impact water quality.
Both the loss of wetlands and the degradation of water quality by pollutants effect wetland ecosystems. Populations of fauna and flora that depend on these ecosystems have plummeted over recent decades, disrupting complex food webs. For example, increased nutrient loads cause massive blooms of algae leading to declines in dissolved oxygen in the water column. This can lead to fish kills and dead zones.
Wetlands provide a variety of services which are closely connected to human quality of life. Clean water is a fundamentally vital resource that supports all life. Human populations depend on fisheries for food and economic benefit. Many of these species sustaining these fisheries use wetlands for reproduction, feeding and shelter. Wetlands also attenuate flood events, protecting land, infrastructure and property from damaging storms, waves and floods. As sea levels continue to rise, wetlands will represent an important line of defense along coastal waterways.
Recently, there has been an increasing emphasis on the importance of wetlands and their contribution to improved water quality and ecosystem services. Efforts to use wetlands to improve water quality and habitat are often inhibited due to lack of suitable, undeveloped land. Moreover, sea level rise represents an unpredictable threat to coastal areas that limits efforts to create or restore wetlands.
The exemplary apparatuses and methods described in the present disclosure address one or more of the problems set forth above.